Spin Doctor
BCI is a metalcasting company. It started as one 70 years ago, and most of its resources go toward the casting of gray and ductile iron parts. But Brown envisions his company as more than that, and he wants desperately for his customers to view it the same way—as a “precision CNC machine shop with its own green sand [casting facility] under one roof,” as described on the BCI website.

“Our customers are more familiar and comfortable with machine shops,” Brown said.  “Now we are trying to change the mentality of casting buyers, showing them we are a machine shop that can supply castings, complete with assembly and packaging.”

BCI began bringing services in-house in 1996, when the casting facility started its machine shop to cut out the middle man for new jobs and work directly with the end customer. Within that first year, the company installed four CNC machines. Now the shop features 15 machines, and the majority of new work coming into BCI is for machine-complete parts. In November 2008, BCI acquired a 55,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing facility on neighboring property that Brown hopes will house more machining capabilities. 

According to Mike Menke, director of sales and marketing, 65-70% of new jobs at BCI are machine-complete work. Such value-added work helps BCI earn a 7% profit margin, which Brown says would be much slimmer if the company produced only raw castings.

When a sales person receives a request for quote on a part, he or she will call the potential customer and ask to quote the complete machined casting. Since BCI machines in-house, lead times and transportation costs are reduced. BCI also performs in-house assembly for 10% of its orders and contracts with a company to paint between 40 and 50% of its castings.

“We’re after being a machine shop, and then a [metalcaster],” Meinke said. “We are not happy with staying the same, sticking to the status quo. That’s how we’ve stayed in business, and that’s how we’re going to stay in business—constant change and constant progress.”